Computer programs for various functions such as payroll, accounts receivable, transaction processing, database management, and other functions may be provided by more than one vendor. Furthermore, any one function such as management of a database, for example, may involve computer programs provided by a variety of vendors. Still further, a particular application such as a database management program, for example, may run on an operating system which is provided by a vendor other the vendors of the database management programs.
It is recognized that software provided by one vendor may affect the manner in which the original code of software provided by another vendor, is executed by the system. For example, a section of programming code of a computer program provided by one vendor, may be altered by a modification or even wholesale substitution of programming code, by a computer program provided by another vendor. As a result, the performance of the original computer program may be affected.